


Fear

by talefeathers



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Fear, Gen, Hallucinations, Not Really Character Death, Psychological Trauma, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-06-05 12:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6704365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talefeathers/pseuds/talefeathers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick thought he knew fear before he met Dr. Jonathan Crane.  He had been having nightmares about his parents’ deaths for months already, and even before that he had faced death daily on the trapeze.  He had felt his heart drumming in his ears as he lept between skyscrapers, he had felt adrenaline sing in his veins.  He knew fear, he thought.  He knew how to overcome it.</p><p>He was wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Dick thought he knew fear before he met Dr. Jonathan Crane. He had been having nightmares about his parents’ deaths for months already, and even before that he had faced death daily on the trapeze. He had felt his heart drumming in his ears as he lept between skyscrapers, he had felt adrenaline sing in his veins. He knew fear, he thought. He knew how to overcome it.

He was wrong.

The first sensation after Crane blasted a hefty dose of the airborne toxin into Dick’s face was that of suffocation. He gasped and gulped desperately for air, but found none. His vision began to swim. He dropped to his knees. Distantly, he heard Batman calling out to Robin.

_**Alone** again, little Robin._

The voice seemed to come from everywhere, loud and distorted so that to hear it was to hurt.

_Seems Batman was right about you all along,_ it said. _**Not good enough.** You couldn’t save your parents, and you couldn’t save **him.**_

Something heavy collided with Dick from behind, knocked him to the ground. He turned himself over so that he could try to shove it off, to scramble away, but he froze when he saw what it was pinning him to the ground.

Bruce’s corpse.

 _“NO!”_ he screamed, over and over so that it tore at his throat. He pushed, kicked, and thrashed but to no avail; he was tangled in the Batman’s cape, enveloped in darkness and the cold of Bruce’s ashen skin. _“NO! NO! NO!”_

He couldn’t have said how long he screamed and writhed as new horrors burst upon him, as the Joker tore his flesh to ribbons and Batman wrapped strong hands around his throat and he fell and he fell and he fell with no net to catch him.

But finally, blessedly, darkness descended, real darkness. And he slept.

 

“How long was I out?” he tried to ask. His throat throbbed dully even through the haze of pain medication and he was unable to produce any sound with it no matter how he tried. 

Alfred, thankfully, seemed to get the gist. He smiled weakly, pushing a hand through Dick’s dark hair.

“Well, you were under the influence of Dr. Crane’s toxin for nearly three hours,” he explained. “When we were finally able to subdue you, you slept for twelve.”

Dick swallowed and tried to speak again.

“Bru --?”

“He’s all right. And he’ll be pleased to know that you are, too. He tells me that you shouldn’t have been able to survive the dose you were given.” He gave Dick’s hair a gentle, affectionate tug. “Thank goodness your enemies continue to underestimate your resilience, Master Dick.

Dick sighed, letting his eyes fall shut again.

“Yeah,” he mouthed. “Good.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Did he get you with the fear gas, too?” Dick asked. “Scarecrow?”

Bruce didn’t answer. After a moment, Dick pressed on.

“What did you see?”

The alleyway. The gun. His parents’ blood mixing with the rain on the pavement. The pearls.

But he had seen something else, too, something unexpected.

He had seen a wide-eyed boy in a yellow cape dangling from the edge of a skyscraper. He had watched this boy’s fingertips slip slowly from the edge of the roof, slick with rain. He had been too late to catch him.

“Nothing,” Bruce said, turning away from Dick’s searching eyes. “He didn’t get me.”


End file.
